I Undo Your Fingers
by LightsObsession
Summary: There are alot of things Ianto doesn't know about Jack, but there are far more things Jack doesn't know about himself. When the events of his involvement with The Time Agency cause problems, truths that no one could have imagined start to appear
1. Chapter 1

In someone's life there will almost always be a series of moments, precious instances, seemingly insignificant seconds of their lives, that they will look back on and know that these are the changing factors that have lead them to where they are today. Sometimes these moments are wonderful, filled with passion and hope and sometimes they are terrible and destructive, leaving nothing but pain in their wake. But one thing that everyone should remember, when looking back on the chapters of their lives is that everything begins with a choice.

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'Owen you take the left side, Gwen your with me. Don't get too close, this one's severely agitated!'

'Compared to wanting rip our throats out just like every other day?'

'Very funny Owen. Go.'

It was meant to be a routine weevil capture, a simple grab and bag but this was Torchwood and things were rarely so easy. Jack and Owen had flanked the weevil, Owen ready to stun the creature while Jack pinned it. Gwen had her gun at the ready for backup. The weevil had taken one sniff of Jack and gone completely feral. It howled and lunged at him with a ferocity that they had never seen before. Owen and Gwen let out a yell of alarm while Jack had lunged backwards to escape the weevil's claws. The weevil lunged again but this time Jack was ready and promptly sucker-punched it in the head, sending it howling off down the back alleys of Cardiff.

Tosh had informed them that the alley way had a left side entrance as well. Jack and Gwen slowly edged forward, guns raised. The sound of Owen cursing the puddle of sick, he had accidentally stepped in, left behind by the participants of student night, was the only disturbance to the silence.

'Thought you would be used to sick by now Owen, with the amount you drink every night.' Gwen commented over the comms.

'Who are you, the party police PC Cooper? What's your idea of fun then? Staying in with Rhys and playing Scrabble?'

Jack's voice stopped any retort Gwen might have had. 'Kids! Can we focus please?'

The weevil came into view, it was crouched low to the ground, moaning in sorrow, but when Jack came into view the moans became angry growls, it's focus completely on the immortal man. It made a great snarl, lunging for Jack. Owen jumped forward, grabbing hold of the weevil from behind, locking his arms around it in a desperate attempt to drag it to the ground. Gwen and darted forward to help. Jack stopped with a yell, grabbing at his stomach and doubling over. Instantly Gwen reached for him, asking him what was wrong. He waved her off.

'Go, go! Help Owen, I'm fine!'

With one more concerned look Gwen was off, pulling weevil spray from her pocket and advancing on the two wrestling on the ground.

Leaning against the wall of the alley, Jack slowly slid down, stretching his legs out in front of him. Pressing his hands to his stomach he desperately tried to still the pain that was ripping through him. It felt like his insides were on fire. The sound of his own painful moans rang in his ears, blocking out the sounds of the other two members of his team fighting with the weevil. And then as quickly as the pain started, it stopped.

Panting, Jack lay in shock, wondering what the hell had happened. His eyes were closed and his head was tilted back as he tried to get his breathing under control. He seemed to drift until he felt a hand on his shoulder. Opening his eyes he saw Gwen kneeing next to him, concerning shining through her own wide eyes.

'We managed to capture the weevil; Owen is loading it into the SUV. What happened Jack? What's wrong with you?'

'Oh now your asking' Jack chuckled.

Gwen sighed loudly 'Jack!' She looked upon him imploringly. She really was too good at that. Jack stirred and hauled his heavy body up to rest against the wall. Gwen grabbed him, putting his arm around her shoulders and her own arm around his waist.

'Let's just get back to the hub. Owen can check me over.' He looked over as Gwen made a sound in the back of her throat. Gwen was looking at the back of Jack's greatcoat. 'What?'

'You've got a massive stain on the back of that; Ianto is not going to be happy'.

Ianto was most unhappy, indeed.

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'Ah, that's cold!' Jack was sitting on the table in the autopsy bay, Owen pressing a stethoscope to Jack's naked chest. Ianto was hovering above them, trying to appear casual as he leaned against the railing but he was letting off a nervous energy. Gwen was standing next to Jack, arms folded and a smile on her face as she observed the grown man acting like a toddler.

'For God's sake Harkness, keep still! You're worse than a kid.' Owen removed the stethoscope and pushed on Jack's chest to get him to lie back.

'All right, you said you had stomach pains? Where about's was it?'

'Right here.' Jack placed his hand just above his belly button.

'Let's have a feel shall we?'

Jack let out a little chuckle before replying 'You just want to get your hands on my body don't you? All you had to do was ask Owen, I'm always willing to try new things.' Jack leered.

'In your dreams Jack, I would rather drink my own piss frankly.' Owen replied before pressing hard on the area that Jack had indicated.

Jack lay back, letting his eyes wander around the bay as Owen examined him. His eyes caught Ianto's, who was standing directly above him, looking down at Jack in concern. He gave the other man a little wink, trying to reassure him. He got the tiniest of smiles in return.

Finally, Owen snapped off his rubber gloves, declaring that there was nothing wrong with the Captain.

'Well nothing besides the obvious.' Owen sniggered.

'What do you mean there's nothing wrong with him? You saw him Owen, he was bent over with pain in that alleyway.' Gwen piped up. She stared at Owen with a look of astonishment.

Jack sat up to look at his doctor. It certainly hadn't felt like nothing when he thought his insides were going to be burned away.

'Are you sure you didn't find anything Owen? Why would Jack react that way if it was nothing?' It was Ianto's turn to speak.

Owen let out a highly agitated sigh, running a hand through his hair. 'Who's the doctor here, me or one of you lot? I'm telling you there is nothing wrong with him, It was probably indigestion. You've seen the way he eats. I'll monitor him for a few days if it bothers you all that much, ok? Now that we have determined Harkness's bits aren't' likely to drop off, can you lot clear off so I can do some _real _work?'

'Will miracles never cease?' came Ianto's dry reply.

'Ha bloody ha, tea boy. Now get out, the lot of you, and put your shirt back on Harkness, you're bringing up my breakfast.'

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Jack moaned loudly into the open space of the under-ground bunker as Ianto ran his tongue cleanly along his cock. His hands moved up to Jack's hips, pressing the Captain down onto the bed as he bucked.

'Jack, didn't anyone ever tell you patience is a virtue?' Ianto questioned as he bit into Jack's hip.

Jack was panting, eyes closed and his hands carding through Ianto's hair. He loved it when his lover was in control and contrary to _some _people's belief AKA Owen, Ianto often took the lead in the bedroom. Jack was only too happy to be dominated. Every little helps as they say.

'I have patience when I have to deal with idiot officials all day, every day. I have patience when UNIT try and move in on our jurisdiction. _THIS_ is one place I don't have to bother with the bloody thing, so please Ianto.' The end of his sentence drifted off as a long sensual moan as Ianto continued to tease and nip at the skin on Jack's inner thighs.

Ianto looked up from his position between Jack's legs. Jack was so beautiful when he was like this. When the day ended and the lights were dimmed, when everyone left the hub and let silence descend, that's when the two of them could become themselves. It was like a switch flicking off in Jack. Ianto would watch the transformation from Captain Jack Harkness, to Jack, his lover.

Ianto pressed kisses gently into Jack's skin, licking a path along the predominant hipbone before he came to Jack's stomach. He placed butterfly soft kisses across the small scar Jack had near the cease in his hip. 51st century and you could still get appendicitis. Jack's large hands caressed his shoulders, large fingers trailed down his arms and back up again leaving behind a delicious tickling sensation. Ianto hummed in his throat, dipping his tongue into Jack's belly button before leaving a wet trail around it which he blew on, loving the shiver it sent throughout his lovers body. His eyes were drawn to the point of Jack's recent pain.

'Are you sure that it doesn't hurt anymore Jack?'

Jack propped himself up on his elbows to look down at Ianto.

'It's fine, I won't say that I know what it was, but if it was something serious Owen would have found it. He's a good doctor'

'I know, I know its just that…you looked so pale when you came in before. I've never seen you like that Jack, it…worried me' Ianto looked at him with honest blue eyes.

Reaching down a hand Jack brushed the back of his fingers against Ianto's cheek, watching as he closed his eyes to lean into the gesture. He really was amazing.

'Honestly? I don't remember feeling anything like that before but worrying about it isn't going to help anyone. Besides, if it is anything serious what's it going to do? Kill me?' Jack chuckled.

'That's not funny Jack! What if this turns out to be something alien? Something that can actually kill you for good? What am I..' Ianto stopped himself before he could complete the sentence. It wasn't that he couldn't tell Jack how he felt, he was more than capable of telling someone his feelings. He and Jack were just better at showing rather than saying. He was a man of few words and Jack was a man who talked a lot but really said nothing at all.

Jack reached down and pulled Ianto up the bed, a small smile on his face. He lay back, resting his head on the pillow as he cushioned Ianto's head on his chest, his arms wrapped around his broad back.

'I'm sorry, look, I've died a hundred different ways and not one of them has stuck yet. I'm obviously something so great the universe can't bear to lose me.' He placed a kiss in Ianto's hair.

'Oh yeah, you're something alright.'

'Oi!'

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Four nights later found Jack sitting in his office with his eyes closed rubbing at the spot below his rib cage. The pain had started off at a dull ache a couple of hours ago and had progressed to a constant throbbing beneath his skin. He had sent Ianto home so the younger man could get some rest. Ianto had been working non-stop on the paper work for the residential trip an alien school had taken to Wales in order to see how the lower species lived.

He began to regret his instance to send the Archivist home when he felt a driving flash of pain pulsing from his chest to his gut. Clenching his teeth to stop himself from screaming Jack folded his arms on his desk and placed his head on them, willing the pain to simply stop.

'Can I please not just catch a break?' He growled out to himself.

Sweat broke out across his brow as he panted through the pain. This was worse than dying slowly from poisoning. At least then he knew the cause and could be prepared for what was coming.

When he felt a particularly excruciating pang that made his breath catch in his throat, his eyes widened and his heart palpated. He decided now was the time to call in reinforcements. Namely Ianto. Fumbling for his mobile he located Ianto's name through pain burred vision.

Ianto answered on the third ring.

'Jack'

Another deep pang of pain lanced through Jack.

'Ianto.' Jack breathed.

'Jack? What's wrong? What is it?' Came the panicked reply.

A strong wave of burning pain racked his body.

'Ianto, I don't…I can't..' It was the last thing Jack was able to say before the pain completely over took him. His mind shut down as he crashed to the floor.

Ianto's voice shouting Jack's name over and over again over the phone was the only sound in the stillness that followed.


	2. Chapter 2

Blackness. That was the first thing he noticed when his mind began to reboot. His mind felt slow and sluggish and he was unable to focus or centre himself. He felt disjointed as he continued to float in the sea of darkness. He couldn't remember what had happened, nor where he was and how he had gotten there. He became dimly aware of a slight beeping sound. He tried to focus on his body, trying to will it into action.

Slowly, sound began to filter in. The muffled sound of voices raised and placating, anxious and demanding. He became aware of the hardness at his back and of the softness underneath his head. Groaning with the dull pain that was still constant in the pit of his stomach, Jack eyes strained open. His vision was blurry for a few moments and he had to blink hard for the watery fog to clear. Owen appeared above him immediately, shining a pen light in his eyes. He tried to turn his head away as pain pressed against his skull leaving a dull throbbing in its wake, but Owen turned him back with determination.

A croaking sound emitted from Jack's throat when he tried to speak as Owen unclipping his braces and pulled his dark blue shirt free of Jack's trouser waistband.

'You gave us quiet a scare, Harkness. Can't you ever have a normal day?'

Jack managed a creaking chuckle as he managed to reply 'have you looked at where you are lately?'

Owen grunted in amusement as he grabbed some rubber gloves from the box on the tray to his left.

'Where..?' Jack started to question

'Upstairs. Trying very hard not to be nosey. I told them I would let them know what was happening after the examination. Knowing you, this is going to be something you don't want broadcasting to the whole team.' Owen grabbed a stool, wheeling it over so he was sitting by Jack's head. His gaze dropped downwards for a fraction of a second before it flew back up to Jack's face. He considered Jack for a moment, debating what he was about to say.

'If you know something about your condition Jack, you'd better tell me.'

Jack immediately began to deny any previous knowledge of his illness before he was interrupted by the doctor.

'I know you love to be opaque about every damn thing, but I'm your doctor. You hired me to patch you all up when you're broken. But I can't do that if you hold out on me. So speak now or forever hold your peace, mate.'

Secrets were a key point of Jack's existence. He had kept many different secrets, from many different people, for many different reasons. He wasn't sure he knew how to live his life without them, but in that brief moment he would have allowed everything he knew to spill from his lips. If he knew anything.

'For once, if I knew anything I would tell you.' There was an honestly in his eyes that placated Owen.

'Right. Then I'm going to take a look and try and find out what the hell is going on. I'm not dealing with Gwen clucking about like an old mother hen because you decided to be dramatic.'

'Hey, wouldn't be a good day without Gwen taking up some injustice or other.' Jack chuckled as Owen began to press very gently at his exposed stomach, letting out a little breath as his hands started to stray to the source of the pain.

'So' Jack started, trying to take his mind off the probing fingers, 'Ianto called you all in?'

'What else could he do? You were unconscious on the floor! Its wasn't exactly something he could sort on his own was it? Why did you call him anyway? You know that if something is wrong with you, you call me.' Owen scowled as he pressed a little harder.

Jack started at the ceiling of the autopsy bay. What could he say? He could say that Ianto was the one he could rely on. He could say that Ianto was always first in his thoughts. He could say that Ianto gave him something he needed and that without the other man, he would be a little less of who he was. He could say he felt wanted with Ianto.

'We were having phone sex.'

'Should have bloody known' came the predicable response.

Owen pressed on a particular area of Jacks' abdomen causing him to let out a loud yelp of pain. He shot Jack a quick look in alarm. He was taking great painful gasps, his whole body shuddering with the movement. Owen frowned as he pressed the spot again. The Captain groaned in pain once again.

'Here we go, that's what we want!' Owen crowed.

'I'm so glad you're enjoying yourself!' Jack gasped as he tried to wriggle away from the pain.

Owen chuckled as he stood up to grab a small hand held scanner from the medical tray. 'I knew this would come in use one day.' The alien adapted medical scanner allowed them to take internal pictures of a body, showing the layers to the human frame from the muscles to the organs to the bone beneath it all.

Jack saw it, his eyes widening in alarm. 'You want to use that!?! You still haven't figured out that scalpel thing and you want to point that at me?' Jack practically screeched.

'Calm down, I've been practising. Besides even if something did go wrong, it's not like you would loose any appendages permanently.' Owen dismissed him, raising the scanner and gently adjusting the settings.

Jack let his head fall back onto the pillow, closing his eyes in a resigned manner. If his stomach was going to leak out through his belly button, he didn't want to watch it happen. 'Owen, I'm trusting you.'

Looking away from the scanners screen as it flashed to life, Owen through an apprehensive but accepting look that Jack missed totally, too busy tracing the scar on his stomach with an index finger. He nodded to himself before looking back at the screen.

At first there was nothing distinguishable between the soft white lines of Jacks organs and bones. The top of the stomach was clearly visible, behind it a pair of healthy kidneys. Pointing the scanner lower displayed the rest of the stomach and intestines, larger ones only and..... 'What the hell?' Owen muttered, his face crinkled in concentration.

Jack's head shot up in alarm. 'What?'

Owen shook his head while he reached out to push Jack's head back down with a finger to the forehead. He stood there looking at the screen in stunned silence. There was something inside Jack! And it was growing. The first time he had examined Jack it wasn't there. Now it was large enough to start pressing against Jack's stomach.

'Owen!' Jack growled from the bed. He was trying to look at Owen from his position to read his reaction but all he got was the everpresent frown on the other man's face and the instruction to 'Shh'. The silence didn't help Jack's anxious twitching at what he might have found. He had convinced himself that Owen had found some kind of blood sucking parasite buried deep inside him.

'Owen what's happening? You're not helping my nerves here!'

'I just told you to wait! I've just got to…' His voice trailed off as he started at the screen with a look of disbelief. He looked from the scan, to Jack, to the scan, to Jack once again.

Worry laced Jack's tone 'What?'

Owen looked at him and he stared right back.

'Well fuck me!'

* * *

After assuring the team that Jack had not made sexual advances on him, nor had he discovered that Jack was in fact a transvestite from transsexual Transylvania, Owen returned to the bay. Jack had remained on the examination table as instructed to by Owen when he had rushed up to stop the rest of the team stampeding to Jack's rescue. He seemed disorientated and looked lost. His eyes swung from one point to the next, unable to settle on one spot. Owen couldn't blame him. Jack was meant to be indestructible and unshakeable. He was meant to last _forever_, not keel over in pains.

Jack's gaze finally settled on Owen as he walked down the steps and took to tinkering with the images he had collected, preparing to display them on screen for Jack. The others had tried to insist that they come down and be with Jack when he heard the results. Apparently there were convinced he was infected with an alien that was going to eat him alive, slowly. Ianto had demanded that he at least be allowed to sit with Jack but Owen figured that this was something Jack wouldn't want even Ianto to know about.

Once he had Jack sitting up with his shirt back in place he tried to figure out how he was going to explain this. This wasn't some random alien anomaly or threat. He really shouldn't be surprised when he considered everything. After Pterodactyls and alien sex gas and cyber women and cannibals and all the shit the rift threw at them, this was the most normal thing of the lot. That had to be saying something.

'Are they all ok?' Jack asked.

'Yeah, yeah.' Owen nodded absently 'They freaked out for a moment but they'll wait for you. Ianto wanted to come down but I didn't think this would be something you would want him knowing about, not yet anyway'

Jack took on a look of confusion, his eyebrows knitted together as he leaned forward slightly, 'What do you mean? Is it that serious?'

'Think of how serious it could be.'

He gave Jack a moment to consider this. 'It's worse than that'

'Oh.'

Bringing up the first of the images didn't create much of a reaction in Jack. Of course that was because it only showed the healthy stomach and kidneys. It was the second image that would be the shocker.

Pointing at the organs Owen gave a brief overview. 'Your stomach and kidneys are here see? They are perfectly fine, looks like drinking all that water does your kidneys a world of good. Of course it still makes you a boring sod.'

Jack's legs swung back and forth as he sat on the edge of the table looking at the pictures of his perfect insides. If nothing else came of this, at least his claim that he was as perfect on the inside as he was on the outside would have some weight now.

Owen hesitated in bringing up the next image. Jack watched his finger hover over the button, hanging in mid-air. Owen seemed to be looking at his finger as well but when Jack looked more closely he could see the distant look in his eyes. His finger crashed down on the button, the image bright and telling on the screen.

Both pairs of eyes flew to the monitor but only one of them fully comprehended what they were seeing.

Jack could see the rest of his stomach and what he had left of his intestines. But the largish white mass was a mystery to him. He was sure that wasn't there before.

He gave Owen a questioning look. 'Owen, what the hell is that? Is something _growing _in me?'

Owen nodded, tracing the pear shape that had sandwiched itself between Jack's stomach and intestines.

When no response was forth coming from the doctor Jack hissed, 'Owen! Does it need taking care of or am I going to be performing my own version of that scene from Alien?'

Owen turned to him, the grave look appearing strange on his face. It was rare to see Owen looking something other than miserable or bored.

'Jack, it's a womb.'

Jack's legs stopped swinging.

It was a bloodsucking parasite after all.


End file.
